In Focus: How to get the most out of your recruitment consultant

As a relative newcomer to Maxim Recruitment, it's been easy to notice a thing or two about how the job application process works smoothest here and what will make a pain in the neck for both us and you! I'm going to go over how it all works and how you can use us best; it will get your application dealt with faster and make our job easier.

Before you call us...

It's a good idea to have a think about what you want before you even get in touch with us. We will be happy to answer any specific questions you have about getting a job through us, but have a few things in mind first:

• What role do you want and where do you want it? We can't tell you either of these things, only you know what kind of job you want and only you know how far you're willing to travel. Also, do we offer the type of job you're looking for? If the particular type of role you're looking for isn't on our website, chances are we don't cover it at all so we can't help you.

• Why do you want a new job? Are you after a higher salary? Perhaps a better quality of life? Maybe you just want a change? These criteria are helpful to us, some jobs offer a good salary in a bad location, while some offer only a tiny salary increase but are in a particularly nice area.

• If you want to go overseas, do a bit of homework first and see if that's what you really want. Going overseas is no small step, it's a big change, often with major physical and cultural differences there. We can give some broad information on places to help you come to a decision, but we aren't travel agents and can't get you a long term paid holiday!

Much of the basic information you want is actually on our website anyway, have a browse, at least some of your questions are bound to be answered.

First contact

Ok, so you know what you want, where you want it and why you want it. First contact is ideally made by emailing us an up to date copy of your CV. Please send it in MS Word format, it's a common, well recognised format everywhere and really does help. If you're having any problems with your CV, there are some guidelines on our website to help you out, not to mention a thousand places on the internet. In addition, specify your initial thoughts on the cover letter. That gives us a note or two to put on our database and helps your CV start getting moved towards the right kind of job.

While our web server has been known to be rather possessive of CVs, it should be passed down into our inboxes within a minute or two of sending. One of our consultants will then take a quick look through it and see if there are any immediate positions you would like.

Your part is done for the time being, the ball is in our court. We get a lot of applications so it might take a short while to get yours processed. At the very least we will probably be back to you in 3 days to a week (it all depends on what kind of jobs we have in the books currently). If you suspect your CV hasn't arrived, feel free to call and enquire.

What happens next?

We've looked through your CV and we've answered any immediate questions you had. Its time to talk properly now, we will call you up at a time convenient to you for a phone interview. Well, I say "phone interview," but Maxim actually operates on a much more informal basis than most, so in essence one of our interview trained recruitment consultants will call you up for an in depth conversation about your CV and career options, and in so doing will be able to build up a more detailed profile of what you're looking for.

Now is the time to tell us in detail what you're looking for. We want to know what you would improve over your current or old job. Anything from a bad tempered boss to long travel times, we will do our best to match you up to a better position.

We will need various pieces of information about you and your current job. This information includes your current job title, number of years experience, current salary, your availability for work, driving license status, what your current job involves and a few general personal details. For overseas work we also need to know whether you are seeking to travel with a family or not. Don't worry about giving us this information, anything you tell us is strictly confidential.

We will also want to know your salary expectations. Everyone wants better pay, but be realistic, you simply aren't going to get a £20,000 pay rise. By all means we would get you a six-figure sum if we could, that would make us rich pretty fast too, but it just isn't possible. We will get you the best pay rise possible, but don't expect miracles.

Now you can put your feet up and relax, it's down to us to send out your CV to employers. Don't worry about us stepping on any toes or sending it to the wrong place, we will ask your consent before sending your CV to clients. As soon as we have any feedback from employers, we will let you know.

Interviews

Looks like we've got our feedback for you, and its good. One of our clients has expressed an interest in you and they want to arrange an interview. We will generally act as liaison between you and the employer and arrange an interview which is convenient to both parties.

All you really need to do at this stage is be easily contactable; we can't get you an interview if you disappear off the face of the Earth. We recommend you give us a variety of telephone numbers to contact you on, this will cover all eventualities. Also, please let us know if you are going on holiday (and of course make sure you have a number we can reach you on there). Any information you need will be provided; an overview of the client, details of the role you're being put forward for, and information on how to reach the interview location if necessary.

The next stage

You've been to your interviews with perhaps several clients, now your work is done and it’s down to us to represent you and try to negotiate the best offer we can for you.

If they think you're right for a job they will either make an offer or ask for a second interview (if you get a second interview the chances are you'll get an offer, after all you clearly impressed them in the first one). Once you have your offers in hand, we will discuss your options with you one last time to help advise you on which position will provide you with the best opportunities.

On the other hand, perhaps the employers decided you weren't suitable for the role. Not the ideal result, but certainly not the end of the world. We can give you feedback on exactly why the client didn't want to employ you. Perhaps it's as simple as your experience was the wrong sort for them in particular, that being the case we can just pitch your CV to a slightly different audience. Or maybe you just don't quite have what they see as being enough experience, if this is the case (which it sometimes is, particularly with overseas placements) we can give you advice on what you can do to spice up your CV a bit, perhaps we can place you in a role which in a year or two's time will make your ideal job an easily attainable goal.

To conclude

Well that's the recruitment steps in a nutshell, so here is a summary of what you can do to help us do our job:

• Think things through beforehand.
• For Heaven's sake leave contact details.
• Send through a well presented, well written CV in MS Word format.
• Be easily contactable and flexible for interview times.

If you do these small things for us, your application will be handled as efficiently as possible and we should be able to help you as efficiently as possible and we should be able to help you quickly and with minimal fuss. I hope this article has helped clarify our processes to you and why we as what we do.

With all that said, it should be pretty clear how you can easily get a job through us. So what are you waiting for? Send your CV to Maxim now and your dream job could be just round the corner!